rising_star

I wouldn't list things that you were acknowledged in. And, I'd list the conference presentation under a heading like that and the note along with the title that the abstract was published.

If this person is your potential advisor, you want to find out how they interact with their grad students. Ask about mentoring, ask how involved s/he is in the writing process (proposal stage, dissertation stage), ask if there are group meetings with all his/her students, ask how many current students s/he has and at what stage they are, ask if s/he publishes with his/her students. Ask about the departmental atmosphere. And, most importantly, ask for the contact info of some of his/her grad students. Faculty never really know how their grad students see them so best to get it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Hopefully that gives you a few things to ask. I actually asked all of those things of every prospective advisor and used the answers to rule some of them out.

Perhaps more important than the specific department's placement record is that of the person you want to work with.

Definitely withdraw the app if you're sure you wouldn't go there, even if offered funding.

I didn't take any undergraduate courses in the field that I now study as a grad student. Now, this could be because my undergrad didn't offer any classes in it and I'd never heard of it... That said, my field is unusual in that it's considered one that people often come to later in life. Very few people in the graduate program have an undergrad degree in it. I think you'll be fine if you can show the adcom your passion for studying whatever it is you want to study.

I wouldn't consider the undergrad reputation of the university at all. There's a thread on this somewhere from last year. But basically, your only interactions with undergrads will be when you're teaching. My grad program is a top-notch program at a school not known for its undergrad programs in anything. But people will know who I studied with if/when I go on the academic job market because the faculty in my dept are well-known and connected.

You can change it, I'm pretty sure. Otherwise I'd still have one I can never remember.

So the funny thing about UGA is that my school's post office had actually pasted something over that "Official Acceptance" thing on the outside of the envelope. So I actually didn't know it was an acceptance until I opened it. Congrats! And GOOOOO DAWGS, sic' em, woof woof woof woof woof!

You might consider getting a iPod touch. Works a lot like the iPhone but it can only connect to existing networks. If your university/job has free wireless, you could connect to your email on the touch and not have to knock over people to get to a computer.

You guys need to come up with a PIN that's easier to remember. Like the zip code of where your parents lived when they were first married. Or first part of your grandmother's phone number or whatever. I didn't actually use one of those but something similar so it's fairly easy for me to remember from year to year.

I've been in grad school for a while now (sadly). I always refer to professors as Dr. in email. My it's my Southern upbringing. I think I have twice emailed my MA advisor (who I no longer work with) and used her first name, and only then it was after I'd graduated. That said, I call many of my professors by their first name in person, in part because my discipline works in the informal a lot and the faculty think of us as future peers. One prof said he wouldn't talk to me if I called him Dr. X so I never did, not even in email. I think sticking with the formal in email is good. My advisor signs his emails with one letter "L" (not the real letter but whatever). I'd NEVER start an email with "Hi L,"

Unrelated but get going on that visa paperwork ASAP. One of my cohort is from Pakistan and couldn't start until January due to visa issues (as in, getting one).

t_ruth, my field doesn't do interviews either. I think 5 of the schools I was accepted to last year invited me for a visit where they paid some or all of the costs. Sometimes a set amount, sometimes we'll pick up your flight. I always had to pick the weekend and let me know since they don't have any admitted student weekends or anything like that. So yea, ask.

I got offered TA/RA positions before even filing the FAFSA (I do my taxes late, every year).

convex, that only applies to schools with a large endowment. For public universities, slashes in state funding are *very* detrimental (unless you're the UT system with it's fat endowment). My university is facing a $100 million cut to what's left of this year's budget. They're talking about cutting out some graduate programs that aren't "productive". So, sorry to say it, but I'm not exaggerating things. The grad students here are launching a letter writing campaign to literally save our jobs, departments, and programs. And, btw, there are plenty of wealthy Ivies that used to have $10B+ endowments that are cutting back on their spending. They aren't cutting financial aid and/or fellowships yet, but they are freezing hiring, stopping or not starting construction, etc. And again, that's not an exaggeration but an email I was forwarded.

Oconee County is known for having better schools than Athens. You could look at living in Watkinsville but that's gonna be more than a 10 min drive away. All the surrounding towns are more than 10 min away.

probably community.livejournal.com/who_got_in on its English 2009 page. And the wgi lounge for 2009.

I find that really interesting since UIUC has a respected African Studies Center that offers its own MA and has Title VI FLAS funding. Weird.

I wanted to go to grad school b/c I couldn't get a job after undergrad. Seriously. Option 1: real job. Totally failed. Option 2: Grad school (had always been in the back of my mind anyways). Option 3: full-time theater internship. Could've gotten one but didn't need it. Plus, who really wants to make $175/wk (before taxes) with paid housing? And you thought grad school didn't pay well... Found my interest through some random courses I took as an undergrad. Found my grad concentration on Google.

The short list of applicants most likely. As in, they've weeded through them all and made a short list of people they want to consider further. Maybe. I could be totally wrong. P.S. Moving this to "Applications" because it'll get a better response there, likely.

Or that the cost of living is really high wherever this NU is?

Sorry, I should've specified that I meant funded graduate students, all of whom have the title "graduate assistant" at my university. They are obligated by some legislation apparently to provide and cover health insurance and at least 80% of the in-state portion of tuition (and I believe all of out-of-state tuition*)for all graduate assistants (and graduate associates, which means you're ABD and working for them as a TA/RA). So while the program could pay less (it'd have to stay above the university-wide minimum), they'd still be on the hook for the tuition and health insurance. To offset that, we'd have to actually pay them. Seriously. Out of state tuition is about $26K. Our health insurance benefit costs the University something like $3K per student (the premium, if we paid it, would be on the order of $1400/year), from what I hear. And yes, they can add adjuncts during hiring freezes. I'm not in poli sci but my program has only 2 core courses (one fall, one spring) so, theoretically, they could teach those only every other year and all the MA and PhD students would still take them. At my MA institution, there was a cutback in graduate course offerings for several years. It came about because during the 01-03 fiscal years, the state cut their budget, froze hiring, etc. At the same time, some faculty members left for other institutions. As a result of the hiring freeze, those positions couldn't be filled by TT faculty. Since the Grad School's rules prohibit non-TT faculty from teaching graduate seminars, there were some co-convened (grad/undergrad) courses offered but not as many grad seminars. The result was that sometime students had trouble finding actual graduate seminars to register for. Another example, my current PhD program had 3 of its faculty on sabbatical in the fall. This spring there are 3 more graduate seminars offered than there were in the fall. Lots of people are taking their required methods class now (even some who did their MA research already and are currently writing) because it hasn't been offered since they enrolled in Fall 07... ============== * I think the out-of-state tuition thing comes up because, unless you quit school and work for a year, you can never gain in-state status for tuition purposes here.

Yea, but grad students (esp once you count tuition and any insurance benefits) aren't cheaper than adjuncts. That's what you have to consider. You also have to consider that while professors may have to teach the same number of courses, they are not necessarily obligated to teach a certain number of *graduate* courses. So if they admit fewer students, they don't need as many seats in grad classes, freeing profs to teach undergrads (where the money is and comes in from the university based on enrollment). As least in my program, that will NOT be the case. We aren't hiring. There won't be more TAships. And, even though there aren't really jobs for our graduates (several openings have been pulled, including some after phone interviews with candidates), our department is pushing those at the dissertation stage to finish to free up funding for the currently enrolled students. My program is likely to admit the same number of students, but a lot fewer will be offered funding. The idea is that all the people near finished will finish and graduate, freeing up a few spots for new students (but almost certainly there will be fewer new students with funding than there are those graduating).

I don't really see how that'd cause you to lose your assistantship, provided you're able to fulfill the duties you're assigned.

sadly, there's a max of ten options so I can't add South America to the poll. Maybe fenderpete will rework it (edit the original post, scroll down, hit the tab for "polling")